Thread · 1 min

If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late

Reid Hoffman · Reid Hoffman (X) Free Beginner

This one line from LinkedIn's co founder is the mindset that makes buying infrastructure feel safe: the first version is meant to be rough and early, so polishing plumbing before launch is exactly the wrong instinct. It is a quick gut check when you catch yourself gold plating parts no customer will notice. Keep it handy for the moment you are tempted to perfect the wrong thing.

  • An early version is supposed to feel embarrassing, that is the point
  • Time spent perfecting commodity infrastructure delays the learning you need
  • Ship, then improve based on real users rather than guesses
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It answers 3 questions

  1. How often should an early-stage startup ship?
  2. My MVP needs users to log in, pay, and get notifications. Should I build auth, payments, and email myself or glue together no-code and third-party tools?
  3. I'm non-technical and can't afford a developer. Can I ship a real MVP with no-code tools, or will that trap me later?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  3. Video · ~13 min How to Plan an MVP Michael Seibel (YC)
  4. The origin text for the modern MVP and validated-learning vocabulary every founder now uses. Read it for the mental model that... theleanstartup.com Book · ~330 pages The Lean Startup Eric Ries
  5. Michael Seibel, who ran YC, makes the blunt case for shipping something almost embarrassingly simple and learning from real... Y Combinator Startup Library Video · ~10 min video How to Build an MVP Michael Seibel
  6. The deepest no-code stack, database, workflows, and custom UI, for building genuinely complex web apps and marketplaces without... bubble.io Tool · platform Bubble, No-Code Full-Stack App Builder Bubble
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